16/03/44 - Occupied Countries
March 16th, 1944
Germany (and the Eastern Front)
Only way out
Ciechanów [Zichenau for the Germans] - The chief of staff of the 2. Armee waited for the morning to come. Contemplating one last time the rising sun, General von Tresckow fires several times at random with his service weapon. An attack by Partisans? That is what he asked his orderly to tell. Having destroyed during the night the few incriminating documents he had in his possession, he leaves the HQ of the 2. Armee, officially to inspect a front-line unit before his departure for Germany - he had been dismissed a few days earlier, but had to wait for his replacement before leaving. German officer and Junker all the way, right!
In reality, Henning von Tresckow had learned of the failure of Operation Valkyrie. He intends to take responsibility of his actions before God, but he wanted to protect his relatives, who would be subject to the Sippenhaft if his proximity to the conspirators were discovered: in the case of high treason, the entire family of the traitor is considered an accomplice. This is why he pulls the pin of the grenade he had just placed under his chin...
Sick leave for the Führer
Wolfsschanze (Rastenburg) - After the terrible, despicable, abominable attack of which he was the target, Adolf Hitler leaves the Wolf's Lair, leaving his decimated staff to go and rest at the Berghof. The Führer will go there in his armored train - the plot has been crushed but we are not sure of anything... He will supervise the continuation of Fredericus II from Obersalzberg. What remains of the OKH - essentially Warlimont, who replaces the late Jodl, and Guderian, who replaced the late Keitel - will act as liaison.
Before getting into the car that was to take him to the station, the dictator takes the time to take a last look at the remains of the conference room where he had spent so many hours and so often decided the lives (and deaths) of millions of men. The heavy table which saved his life, ridiculously placed askew on the only remaining leg, is still there. But the many bloodstains have already been cleaned up. Hitler stands there for a short time mumbling that, when the war is over, they will have to see to it that everything is returned to its original state - including the table - and turn it into a museum for the Germans who died for the Reich... Staggering a little, his right arm still in a sling, the dictator then leaves with a shuffling step, between two phalanxes of SS guards. He has no idea that he will never return to this place.
Poland
Operation Vengeance - Saving Warsaw
Krakow District - The 6th Retaliation ID of Colonel Wojciech Wayda "Retaliation" continues to flee from the 8. SS-Kavalerie-Division Florian Geyer and the Reich's forces of repression to return to his refuge in Olkusz... with one exception.
Indeed, late at night, the 12th Regiment of Lieutenant Colonel Julian Więcek "Topola" storms the prison in Nowy Wiśnicz, located in... a former Carmelite monastery, and seizes it without a blow! It is operation Wiśnicz, initiated and led by "Topola" (in fact, from then on, the highest ranking official of the Armia Krajowa in the region), according to a totally improvised plan and in a context already tense to the extreme. It is therefore to be feared that it will go very badly - all the more so as the prison also houses the headquarters of an SS police battalion.
And yet, everything went perfectly! The 1st Battalion (2nd Lieutenant Józef Wieciech "Tamarov") did not even have to fire a shot: the seven men disguised as guards who made up its lead squad simply knocked on the door; they were opened and easily overpowered the dozen or so territorial officers present, as well as the more numerous but not very motivated collaborating police officers! In fact, thanks to multiple internal complicities, the AK already has detailed plans of the establishment, with the schedules of the guards' rounds, the location of the cells of each prisoner, and even their personal files! Once the guards were tied up, communications having been cut off, there is no need to fear the arrival of reinforcements. The Poles could thus free 128 political prisoners at will and loot the arsenal, where they recovered about thirty weapons. Before leaving, the Secret Army even took the time to ask the common law prisoners to return to their cells...
Heroic action for complete success - objective achieved, no casualties, no deaths, no alarm. Więcek can therefore set out with all his people to his refuge; he should arrive there around March 20th. Unfortunately, in the following weeks, the Germans did not fail to take revenge on the villages of Lipnica Murowana, Lipnica Dolna and Lipnica Górna, with the help of Hiwis and SS of non-German nationality, to the great misfortune of the population...
For the 106th ID of Colonel Bolesław Nieczuja-Ostrowski "Tysiąc", on the other hand, ambitions give way to anxiety. The colonel, who had just declared the "Republic of Kraków" in the liberated area, sees the troops sent by the General Government coming towards him. Not wishing to abandon the civilians he had compromised so much, "Tysiac" chooses to go to the front and prepares to fight in the woods of Ciągowice, between Zawiercie and Łazy. A risky choice... But he's still not going to bring the enemy home!
.........
Task Force Krakow (Krakow district) - Edward Kleszczyński's group arrives in the Radoszyce sector - very close to Końskie, where clashes between the now dispersed resistance fighters and the Reich security troops take place. Not knowing what to do about this event outside their action, cavalrymen and foresters take advantage of their superior mobility to make a detour to the east and Sulejów. This way, they avoid most of the fighting in the region, but they still risk to collide with the Reich forces chasing the 25th and 26th ID.
.........
Former Końskie-Stąporków maquis (Radom-Kielce and Łódź districts) - The columns continue their way each on their own, more or less caught in the hunt by the opponent...
The "main" group - 28th ID and civilians in particular - slips with some ease in the direction of Starachowice. It is true that the deployment of the SicherungDivisionen (none of them covered the east, we did not think that the Resistance would go to the front!) facilitates the task of Colonel Franciszek Pfeiffer "Radwan", at least as much as the diversionary efforts of his compatriots. Unfortunately, his group did not travel more than 20 kilometers during the day. And in wartime, slowness is never a good thing.
On the other hand, for Major General Sosabowski and the 10th ID Maciej Rataj of Lt. Józef Rokicki "Charles", things are not going well - it is logical: after all, they did their best to attract attention. Passing through the Zagnańsk area (north of Kielce, a terrain that opens up for a good 15 kilometers to the forests of Daleszyce), the Poles are thus rudely hung up by the 444. Sicherung of Adalbert Mikulicz, who tried to block the road by making a hook towards the north-east, in direction of the 221. Sicherung of Johann
Pflugbeil (coming from the north). A confrontation follows, as violent as it is confusing. The paratroopers have about a hundred dead and wounded, the Resistance about the same number... but the Reich Security Division, once again, proved absolutely incapable of stopping these shock troops, who do not hesitate to charge across the fields, Najkrotsza-droga! The shortest way! The well known impetuosity of the parachute unit finally finds here matter to express itself*. And Mikulicz, perhaps a little presumptuous after his success in front of the rear guard of the small 29th ID, suffered a real affront this time, which sent him back to the nature of his unit: good for nothing, failures and rejects, serving a 3rd class armament, just fit to be massacred or to run away, as he wanted! Obviously, the German will not stay there, because the allied ammunition is running out. Nevertheless, for the SicherungDivisionen, times are definitely hard...
Finally, on the side of the 25th and 26th IDs, things go downright badly as the rookies of Stanisław Dworzak "Daniel" and Wincenty Mischke "Henryk", trying to escape to Przedbórz, run head-on into the 213. Sicherung (Alex Göschen), which is coming in the opposite direction.
No chance... And the Hessian wants revenge after the events of last month in the Piotrków Trybunalski area! This encounter battle, conducted without much strategy, quickly degenerates into a succession of improvised individual engagements... The Armia Krajowa sometimes passes - most often thanks to a local numerical superiority. But the Resistance fighters are not really out of the woods !
.........
Rescue force "Czeslaw" (Radom-Kielce and Łódź districts) - While the bulk of the Polish troops is marching across the plain - with more or less discretion - in the direction of Błędów, the SS-Sonderkommando Dirlewanger enters the Pilica marshes in the surroundings of Kiedrzyn, forming assault columns. This traditional tactic worked well for them in Warsaw. But we are not in the slaughterhouse in the Old Town or in the butcher's shop in Wola - the fighter commandos are expected.
All day long, under a cloudy sky and then a light rain that fills the air with the sound of drops falling on the lagoon, the Germans are caught in a succession of ambushes, coups de main and merciless shootings against the paratroopers of Major W. Ploszewski. No quarter was asked for - and none was given. More and more corpses float on the water before being carried away to drift eastward to the Vistula, or get stuck in a stump, like eloquent warnings to their comrades who follow. Oskar Dirlewanger had not anticipated such violence - especially on a secondary objective that he was supposed to quickly deal with before descending to Końskie. He brutally re-launches his pack, without trying to adopt a coherent tactic and without taking into account the losses. It is true that he is well sheltered in a house in the ravaged village of Grzmiąca. But in the meantime, it is his men who pay the price for his stubbornness... and his disregard for the laws of war, for the men who face him give him the change he needs.
Certainly, some historians will say that the parachutists did not behave much better than the German fighter commandos on the battlefield, especially concerning the prisoners. This may be true, but it may only be true because the testimonies are rare. But in any case, the men of the "Czeslaw" force would have had no way to deal with possible captives, unlike their opponents - if only one para could have been in a mood to surrender. In any case, afterwards, no one will see a single Pole playing football with a German infant as a ball.
.........
Old Town (Warsaw district) - After the "slight misunderstanding" of the day before, Obergruppenführer-SS Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski hastily launches an attack with all the forces at his disposal, making noisily give all his artillery in order to complete to crush the medieval city. The SS has a lot to apologize for - while he was already afraid of being accused of "negotiating with terrorists", it was confirmed that the 4. PanzerArmee of Kurt von der Chevallerie arrives in his sector, led by the XL. PanzerKorps of Eberhard Rodt... However, his sector is still not secured, not even the banks of the Vistula!
Caught by the throat, the Polish defense, already exhausted, finishes collapsing. The order of Col. Karol Ziemski 'Wachnowski' authorizing the survivors to attempt to break through to Śródmieście arrives much too late: improvised without coordination, the attempt fails miserably.
The losses are heavy and it is the coup de grace for the cohesion of the units in the sector. Their morale in tatters, without ammunition or help, many of them are disbanded and their members abandon their weapons, positions and insignia in an attempt to blend in with the population.
In the evening, the SS could consider itself satisfied: even if the insurrection is not defeated, it is irretrievably fragmented into three sectors corresponding to the three groups defined by the AK:
- the "North" group, commanded by Colonel Karol Ziemski "Wachnowski": by the end of the day, about 4,500 soldiers (Żoliborz). It is cut off from the Kampinos forest.
- The "Śródmieście" group, commanded by Colonel Stanisław Steczkowski "Zagończyk" - about 18,500 soldiers (Śródmieście Północ, Śródmieście Południe, Powiśle). It is the last in town to have access to the river, even in the absence of a bridge.
- The "South" group, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Stanisław Kamiński "Daniel" - about 6,000 soldiers (Chojnowskie forest). Most of the district of Mokotów having been evacuated the day before, it is no longer really able to influence the events.
Now without a unified command, these three pockets fought in isolation. And it is on their scale that we will now follow the confrontations in the ruins of the capital.
...
Żoliborz (Warsaw district) - The "Northern" group is in agony: cut off from the Kampinos forest, it awaits the final assault... which does not come! In fact, the extreme resistance opposed these last days to the attacks has somewhat disgusted the Germans... and, for von dem Bach-Zelewski, the road to the east remains a priority. Thus, against all odds, this group of the Armia Krajowa does not disintegrate. It even continues to circulate through the sewers - which allows to evacuate 800 fighters and 4,500 civilians from the Old City to the area still controlled by the insurgency. But for the soldiers left behind, the 2,500 wounded aand 35,000 civilians, there was no quarter given: like in Wola or Ochota, the Axis massacre without mercy all those it considers to be combatants and deport the others - not without having committed murders, rapes and other violence beforehand.
...
Kampinos Forest (Warsaw district) - After the fall of the Old City and the collapse of the Polish center, the "Kampinos Republic" receives from Colonel Antoni Chruściel "Monter" the order to make a new attempt from the next night to the Gdańsk station - but this time in an attempt to clear the Żoliborz sector. Col. Kazimierz Iranek-Osmecki "Heller", not really convinced that the means at his disposal (they have decreased since March 14th!), is nevertheless prepared to obey - but does he have the choice?
...
Neighborhood of Śródmieście (district of Warsaw) - Flat calm or almost in this sector - after the butchery and harsh disappointment of the previous day, the Germans are quiet, while the Poles do a poor job of concealing a sharp drop in morale, which hinders any initiative towards the Old Town or the few positions still held in Mokotów. It would take a lot to restore hope.
Alas, the visit they received this evening was not going to motivate them! Indeed, under the cover of night, several reconnaissance elements of the 1st Polish Army crossed the Vistula towards Śródmieście, in order to make contact with the Armia Krajowa without really announcing himself. After many adventures to reach their destination, they received a rather lukewarm welcome. It is true that after the events of the previous day - not to mention those of the last few weeks! - the Poles are not really in the mood to celebrate, and the presence of soldiers in Soviet uniform, even if they are fellow countrymen, is not a pleasant surprise for the Resistance fighters. A month earlier, in his report to London, Stefan Rowecki wrote about Berling's men: "We do not expect anything good from this side, nor do we delude ourselves about their possible loyalty to cooperate with independent Polish agents."
The current passes all the more badly that, in spite of his most justified military prejudices, Sygmund Berling was forced by the NKVD to send his most "politically secure" elements (at least according to the organization in question). In this case, it was (Związek Patriotów Polskich - Union of Polish Patriots), that many Warsawites would surely call traitors without hesitation! And the presence of many "returned" AK members in Berling's forces does not soothe the wounds, quite the contrary! In fact, all of them now know that if they get away with it, it will be deportation or conscription.
We will have to deal with it, for better or for worse. Not having any clear information about what the Red Army is planning for tomorrow, the Poles are waiting to see.
Our (new and friendly) best friend
VVS of the 2nd Belorussian Front - Taking advantage of the return of a "flyable" weather over Poland, and on the express instruction of the Kremlin (which does not forget to manage the contingencies), the strategic aviation starts to send from the west of Belarus large capacity aircraft (Pe-8, TB-7, Il-4) to drop containers of weapons over the Polish capital. The operation was not really organized in the last few days - one could even say that it was improvised! In fact, the VVS have neither the time, nor the know-how of the capitalist air forces for this type of mission.
The planes leave one by one, in the disorder, to drop their loads at dawn or even in the morning (thus risking to be shot at by the Flak, or by a marauding fighter!). The containers, not all of them equipped with a parachute, crash at random all over the city. In fact, a good part of the mortars, anti-tank guns, automatic weapons, ammunition and medicine they were carrying did not fall into the hands of the insurgents... What does it matter, since the cameras from all over the world were on the ground filming the take-off of the planes going to rescue the poor Poles?
The sky is no longer empty... but what's the point?
Panatella Air Base - Tonight, for the first time in a long time, the Halifaxes of the 1586th Special Duty Flight (Polish) can fly back to their capital. It has been ten days and nights since the airmen had been able to help their fellow countrymen. Of course, they are now accompanied by fifteen South African aircraft from Sqn 31 (SA) and 34 (SA) - but the Poles cannot help but feel that this is far too little, and above all far too late.
At night, the four-engined aircraft with the red and white checkerboard and those with the red and blue roundels fly over Warsaw, as if hemmed in by a narrow band that runs between gray clouds and an apocalyptic landscape covered with ashes. In less than two weeks, everything has changed even more than in the previous four and a half years! The pilots have little guidance as to where to drop their packages, due to the lack of a reliable link with the insurgency. They are reduced to circling around in search of a place that seems a little more calm, near the Vistula River, without too many flames or traces of fighting in progress.
Circling around the already dead city, one of the pilots spots a German column - probably SS - coming down the ulica Drogą Dworską, which runs through the Wola district.
For a brief moment, a sinister thought crossed his mind: what if he threw his aircraft with its tons of metal and cubic meters of gasoline on the group of assassins?
That would be much more effective and productive than dropping a few packages! The plane flies over the street rumbling - the pilot strokes the stick, looks for the bomb bay control as if he had projectiles at his disposal. Behind him, he hears a crash: the tail gunner has lost his nerve and empties his magazines towards the ground while shouting into the intercom. Some tracers... it's as if they've been spotted. Too bad. The pilot will drop his containers elsewhere, almost at random - too little, too late. Then, the Halifax climbs back up, its black wings away from the blaze... Below, the bomber observes the silhouette of a lone twin-engine aircraft flying very low and silhouetted against the flames. A C-47? Or maybe an Il-4?
..........
"Among the numerous and globally ineffective attempts at aerial refueling to support the insurrection, there is a grey area that the study of the archives has not allowed to completely clear up: the eventual parachuting of secret agents directly onto the Polish capital.
It is certain that the Allied command always refused to do so, for obvious reasons of security as well as efficiency: why risk an airlift and trained (and therefore precious) personnel on a mission that was as risky as it was hopeless? It takes a gust of wind for the agent to fall on the wrong side of the front! As for the sending of the Polish parachute brigade directly to Warsaw, this chimera would certainly have been spectacular but also both bloody and useless - it would not have served the cause of the Secret Army at all, whatever one may think, with the benefit of hindsight, of the actions of the Sosabowski brigade.
In fact, it is a fact that no personnel were dropped on Warsaw... With one exception, however: according to persistent rumors, a lone Dakota was indeed sent over the city during the night of March 15th-16th, 1944, on direct orders from the War Office, with several people on board to be dropped. What was the purpose of this mission - if it took place at all? It is impossible to say. Undoubtedly, the presence documented that same night of a high-ranking SS officer in Pałac Błękitny for a short inspection tour can still make many fans of sensationalism... But the rest of their stories - the presence on the scene of a hypothetical very young British agent and a paunchy SS major accompanied by a strange captain as his driver, the outbreak of a violent gunfight at the Błękitny Palace between these characters, or even the parachuting of a coffin (!) on the city are obviously
poppycock."
(Robert Stan Pratsky, Bitter Liberation: the Second Polish Campaign - Granit, 2008).
Settlement of scores between Nazis
Radom - After the unpleasant events of the previous day, SS-Brigadeführer Bronislav Kaminski finally arrives at his staff conference, with the arrogance and unawareness of those who believe themselves to be indispensable. He is received by the second knives of the General Government - Ernst Kundt, the governor of Distrikt Radom - the Belarussian quickly realizes that the meeting turns into a trial. His trial. He is accused in particular of the complete indiscipline of his troop as well as its disorderly plundering. The man defends himself strongly by pointing out the bad behavior of the other units of the Schutzstaffel (whose behavior was certainly far from correct but they are not the ones to be judged!) Stubbornly refusing to understand the deep nature of German grievances, Kaminski finally sinks into a sort of nervous breakdown, declaring that he had been promised "a free hand in Warsaw", recalling his years of fighting for the Reich, "for which [he and his men] lost everything", before concluding that they had "the right to repay themselves on the backs of Polish traitors and rebels!" With that, he turns on his heels and goes back to his unit!
But as he tries to leave the room, he is stopped by the guns of two Landsers pointed at his chest! Herr Brigadeführer-SS Kaminski then returns to his seat, a little more polite than before and, it seems, trembling slightly. Witnesses of the scene will say that he had been put in his place! Of course, Kaminski had no real rival in his position as a Russian collaborator of the Nazis, for lack of (for example) a general turned by the Heer... But who can claim to be completely indispensable in these times?
The discussion continues. Faced with him, the Germans look more and more like the judges of a court-martial, for it is now a question of the rape of two German women of the Kraft durch Freude by his men, at the beginning of March...
Treblinka
Village of Wólka Okrąglik - In the forest south of the Bug, on the route that the Soviet forces take while descending to the Wieprz, there is an abandoned clearing. This clearing is Treblinka: a Nazi death camp, destroyed on the direct orders of GrüppenFührer-SS Odilo Globocnik - a Slovenian from a poor family, who was successively responsible for the BurgGraben project (the forced labor of Jews at the German-Soviet border), the deportation of Jews to the camps and the liquidation of almost all the ghettos in Poland (Operation Reinhard). He was also responsible for the implementation of the gas chambers.
Treblinka was a bit like... his child: the first installation designed specifically for large-scale murder, thanks to an industrial "process" (as we would say today) - a process which involved unloading the trains after a journey in atrocious conditions**, sorting, stripping, asphyxiation (or execution in the lazaretto in case of rebellion) and finally cremation.
This... test site was rather poorly organized - it was common for victims to line up in front of the gas chamber and enter the line up in front of the gas chamber and hear the screams and moans of the unfortunate ones before them. This of course triggered panic, screams and attempts to escape... Moreover, Treblinka had no crematorium - the bodies were burned in huge pits on grates, like others cook sausages.
However, in 1944, Treblinka was already referred to in the past tense. The camp was closed, killed by its "father", following a completely failed prisoner revolt, but not without first setting fire to a large part of the facilities and causing the guards to panic.
Among the rebels, only 70 survivors were able to escape. But the episode was enough to demonstrate the fragility of this mechanism of death. The order was given to dismantle this "imperfect facility" as quickly as possible and to send the prisoners back to Auschwitz. Since then, Globocnik has since returned to Slovenia to attend to other matters.
So there was nothing left of the camp when the Red Army arrived at the site. Nothing, that is, as usual, a farm run by a Ukrainian Hiwi, Oswald Strebel - who was ordered to say that he had been there forever. This lie was obviously not enough!
The fact that the Germans, when leaving, also razed to the ground entire villages - Poniatowo, Prostyń and Grądy - is enough to indicate to less sagacious minds that there is here something to hide. Under the recently planted lupines, bones, paper, shards of dishes, razors, shreds of shoes and strands of hair. The remains of a kind of disappeared city. The road leading to the farm is black with ashes, turned over by opportunists who were looking here for scraps of gold teeth. It is estimated that 870,000 people died in Treblinka in less than two years - making it one of the deadliest azi camps, for a relatively short period of time.
With the discovery, the month before, of the horrors of Lublin, Treblinka could have gone unnoticed and more or less forgotten, like Belzec***. But this will not be the case, thanks to Vasily Grossmann, who arrived on the site on March 16th. Under the influence of a horrified inspiration, the journalist-writer will write a long text as unbearable as powerful, published in Zanamya under the title Hell of Treblinka. The result of a long investigation, the work will be produced at Nuremberg for its clinical description of Nazi horror. We will quote only one sentence here, the conclusion, where the writer expresses his terrible weariness in walking the black road: "And it seems that the heart is going to stop, embraced by a sorrow, a pain, that a man could not bear". Nervously exhausted, Grossmann will then have difficulty to return to the front - shortly afterwards he returned to Moscow to remain bedridden for two months, unable to receive anyone.
Nothing to lose
Auschwitz camp - Arrival of a convoy of nearly 20,000 French women rounded up from all over still occupied France. Resistance fighters, widows of resistance fighters, committed citizens, communists, intellectuals, some Jewish women who had escaped from previous deportations... what does it matter, when all of Humanity is your enemy? The deported women cannot ignore the traces of the previous day's revolt and massacre. Bravado or certainty, most of the "able-bodied" then spontaneously gather in the courtyard to sing the Marseillaise. Surprisingly, contrary to their habit, the SS do not open fire. Perhaps because they had run out of arms...
But at the end of the war, these 20,000 women were only 97 survivors. Evacuated before the advance of the Red Army, they will be handed over - unbelievable cynicism - to the Red Cross by the Nazis themselves, in a desperate and pitiful effort to please the future victors.
* A joke was running around the brigade's Scottish training ground: a Pole and his British instructor jumped out of an aircraft, the instructor following his student to keep an eye on him, saying, "I'm staying behind." The Pole opens his parachute, which obviously slows him down - but the Briton's does not open. Seeing his instructor dare to pass him in a frantic attempt to open the chute, the student tries to get out of his harness and shouts: "So we're racing without warning?"
** Some of the first convoys were to suffer 90% casualties before they even arrived at Treblinka!
*** In fact, the site was not protected or even marked until 1958. Before that date, only a memorial gathering the human remains was built by local students under the direction of Professor Feliks Szturo and the priest Józef Ruciński. Today a granite monument carved by Franciszek Duszeńko marks the spot. And Strebel's farm is still visitable.
Germany (and the Eastern Front)
Only way out
Ciechanów [Zichenau for the Germans] - The chief of staff of the 2. Armee waited for the morning to come. Contemplating one last time the rising sun, General von Tresckow fires several times at random with his service weapon. An attack by Partisans? That is what he asked his orderly to tell. Having destroyed during the night the few incriminating documents he had in his possession, he leaves the HQ of the 2. Armee, officially to inspect a front-line unit before his departure for Germany - he had been dismissed a few days earlier, but had to wait for his replacement before leaving. German officer and Junker all the way, right!
In reality, Henning von Tresckow had learned of the failure of Operation Valkyrie. He intends to take responsibility of his actions before God, but he wanted to protect his relatives, who would be subject to the Sippenhaft if his proximity to the conspirators were discovered: in the case of high treason, the entire family of the traitor is considered an accomplice. This is why he pulls the pin of the grenade he had just placed under his chin...
Sick leave for the Führer
Wolfsschanze (Rastenburg) - After the terrible, despicable, abominable attack of which he was the target, Adolf Hitler leaves the Wolf's Lair, leaving his decimated staff to go and rest at the Berghof. The Führer will go there in his armored train - the plot has been crushed but we are not sure of anything... He will supervise the continuation of Fredericus II from Obersalzberg. What remains of the OKH - essentially Warlimont, who replaces the late Jodl, and Guderian, who replaced the late Keitel - will act as liaison.
Before getting into the car that was to take him to the station, the dictator takes the time to take a last look at the remains of the conference room where he had spent so many hours and so often decided the lives (and deaths) of millions of men. The heavy table which saved his life, ridiculously placed askew on the only remaining leg, is still there. But the many bloodstains have already been cleaned up. Hitler stands there for a short time mumbling that, when the war is over, they will have to see to it that everything is returned to its original state - including the table - and turn it into a museum for the Germans who died for the Reich... Staggering a little, his right arm still in a sling, the dictator then leaves with a shuffling step, between two phalanxes of SS guards. He has no idea that he will never return to this place.
Poland
Operation Vengeance - Saving Warsaw
Krakow District - The 6th Retaliation ID of Colonel Wojciech Wayda "Retaliation" continues to flee from the 8. SS-Kavalerie-Division Florian Geyer and the Reich's forces of repression to return to his refuge in Olkusz... with one exception.
Indeed, late at night, the 12th Regiment of Lieutenant Colonel Julian Więcek "Topola" storms the prison in Nowy Wiśnicz, located in... a former Carmelite monastery, and seizes it without a blow! It is operation Wiśnicz, initiated and led by "Topola" (in fact, from then on, the highest ranking official of the Armia Krajowa in the region), according to a totally improvised plan and in a context already tense to the extreme. It is therefore to be feared that it will go very badly - all the more so as the prison also houses the headquarters of an SS police battalion.
And yet, everything went perfectly! The 1st Battalion (2nd Lieutenant Józef Wieciech "Tamarov") did not even have to fire a shot: the seven men disguised as guards who made up its lead squad simply knocked on the door; they were opened and easily overpowered the dozen or so territorial officers present, as well as the more numerous but not very motivated collaborating police officers! In fact, thanks to multiple internal complicities, the AK already has detailed plans of the establishment, with the schedules of the guards' rounds, the location of the cells of each prisoner, and even their personal files! Once the guards were tied up, communications having been cut off, there is no need to fear the arrival of reinforcements. The Poles could thus free 128 political prisoners at will and loot the arsenal, where they recovered about thirty weapons. Before leaving, the Secret Army even took the time to ask the common law prisoners to return to their cells...
Heroic action for complete success - objective achieved, no casualties, no deaths, no alarm. Więcek can therefore set out with all his people to his refuge; he should arrive there around March 20th. Unfortunately, in the following weeks, the Germans did not fail to take revenge on the villages of Lipnica Murowana, Lipnica Dolna and Lipnica Górna, with the help of Hiwis and SS of non-German nationality, to the great misfortune of the population...
For the 106th ID of Colonel Bolesław Nieczuja-Ostrowski "Tysiąc", on the other hand, ambitions give way to anxiety. The colonel, who had just declared the "Republic of Kraków" in the liberated area, sees the troops sent by the General Government coming towards him. Not wishing to abandon the civilians he had compromised so much, "Tysiac" chooses to go to the front and prepares to fight in the woods of Ciągowice, between Zawiercie and Łazy. A risky choice... But he's still not going to bring the enemy home!
.........
Task Force Krakow (Krakow district) - Edward Kleszczyński's group arrives in the Radoszyce sector - very close to Końskie, where clashes between the now dispersed resistance fighters and the Reich security troops take place. Not knowing what to do about this event outside their action, cavalrymen and foresters take advantage of their superior mobility to make a detour to the east and Sulejów. This way, they avoid most of the fighting in the region, but they still risk to collide with the Reich forces chasing the 25th and 26th ID.
.........
Former Końskie-Stąporków maquis (Radom-Kielce and Łódź districts) - The columns continue their way each on their own, more or less caught in the hunt by the opponent...
The "main" group - 28th ID and civilians in particular - slips with some ease in the direction of Starachowice. It is true that the deployment of the SicherungDivisionen (none of them covered the east, we did not think that the Resistance would go to the front!) facilitates the task of Colonel Franciszek Pfeiffer "Radwan", at least as much as the diversionary efforts of his compatriots. Unfortunately, his group did not travel more than 20 kilometers during the day. And in wartime, slowness is never a good thing.
On the other hand, for Major General Sosabowski and the 10th ID Maciej Rataj of Lt. Józef Rokicki "Charles", things are not going well - it is logical: after all, they did their best to attract attention. Passing through the Zagnańsk area (north of Kielce, a terrain that opens up for a good 15 kilometers to the forests of Daleszyce), the Poles are thus rudely hung up by the 444. Sicherung of Adalbert Mikulicz, who tried to block the road by making a hook towards the north-east, in direction of the 221. Sicherung of Johann
Pflugbeil (coming from the north). A confrontation follows, as violent as it is confusing. The paratroopers have about a hundred dead and wounded, the Resistance about the same number... but the Reich Security Division, once again, proved absolutely incapable of stopping these shock troops, who do not hesitate to charge across the fields, Najkrotsza-droga! The shortest way! The well known impetuosity of the parachute unit finally finds here matter to express itself*. And Mikulicz, perhaps a little presumptuous after his success in front of the rear guard of the small 29th ID, suffered a real affront this time, which sent him back to the nature of his unit: good for nothing, failures and rejects, serving a 3rd class armament, just fit to be massacred or to run away, as he wanted! Obviously, the German will not stay there, because the allied ammunition is running out. Nevertheless, for the SicherungDivisionen, times are definitely hard...
Finally, on the side of the 25th and 26th IDs, things go downright badly as the rookies of Stanisław Dworzak "Daniel" and Wincenty Mischke "Henryk", trying to escape to Przedbórz, run head-on into the 213. Sicherung (Alex Göschen), which is coming in the opposite direction.
No chance... And the Hessian wants revenge after the events of last month in the Piotrków Trybunalski area! This encounter battle, conducted without much strategy, quickly degenerates into a succession of improvised individual engagements... The Armia Krajowa sometimes passes - most often thanks to a local numerical superiority. But the Resistance fighters are not really out of the woods !
.........
Rescue force "Czeslaw" (Radom-Kielce and Łódź districts) - While the bulk of the Polish troops is marching across the plain - with more or less discretion - in the direction of Błędów, the SS-Sonderkommando Dirlewanger enters the Pilica marshes in the surroundings of Kiedrzyn, forming assault columns. This traditional tactic worked well for them in Warsaw. But we are not in the slaughterhouse in the Old Town or in the butcher's shop in Wola - the fighter commandos are expected.
All day long, under a cloudy sky and then a light rain that fills the air with the sound of drops falling on the lagoon, the Germans are caught in a succession of ambushes, coups de main and merciless shootings against the paratroopers of Major W. Ploszewski. No quarter was asked for - and none was given. More and more corpses float on the water before being carried away to drift eastward to the Vistula, or get stuck in a stump, like eloquent warnings to their comrades who follow. Oskar Dirlewanger had not anticipated such violence - especially on a secondary objective that he was supposed to quickly deal with before descending to Końskie. He brutally re-launches his pack, without trying to adopt a coherent tactic and without taking into account the losses. It is true that he is well sheltered in a house in the ravaged village of Grzmiąca. But in the meantime, it is his men who pay the price for his stubbornness... and his disregard for the laws of war, for the men who face him give him the change he needs.
Certainly, some historians will say that the parachutists did not behave much better than the German fighter commandos on the battlefield, especially concerning the prisoners. This may be true, but it may only be true because the testimonies are rare. But in any case, the men of the "Czeslaw" force would have had no way to deal with possible captives, unlike their opponents - if only one para could have been in a mood to surrender. In any case, afterwards, no one will see a single Pole playing football with a German infant as a ball.
.........
Old Town (Warsaw district) - After the "slight misunderstanding" of the day before, Obergruppenführer-SS Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski hastily launches an attack with all the forces at his disposal, making noisily give all his artillery in order to complete to crush the medieval city. The SS has a lot to apologize for - while he was already afraid of being accused of "negotiating with terrorists", it was confirmed that the 4. PanzerArmee of Kurt von der Chevallerie arrives in his sector, led by the XL. PanzerKorps of Eberhard Rodt... However, his sector is still not secured, not even the banks of the Vistula!
Caught by the throat, the Polish defense, already exhausted, finishes collapsing. The order of Col. Karol Ziemski 'Wachnowski' authorizing the survivors to attempt to break through to Śródmieście arrives much too late: improvised without coordination, the attempt fails miserably.
The losses are heavy and it is the coup de grace for the cohesion of the units in the sector. Their morale in tatters, without ammunition or help, many of them are disbanded and their members abandon their weapons, positions and insignia in an attempt to blend in with the population.
In the evening, the SS could consider itself satisfied: even if the insurrection is not defeated, it is irretrievably fragmented into three sectors corresponding to the three groups defined by the AK:
- the "North" group, commanded by Colonel Karol Ziemski "Wachnowski": by the end of the day, about 4,500 soldiers (Żoliborz). It is cut off from the Kampinos forest.
- The "Śródmieście" group, commanded by Colonel Stanisław Steczkowski "Zagończyk" - about 18,500 soldiers (Śródmieście Północ, Śródmieście Południe, Powiśle). It is the last in town to have access to the river, even in the absence of a bridge.
- The "South" group, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Stanisław Kamiński "Daniel" - about 6,000 soldiers (Chojnowskie forest). Most of the district of Mokotów having been evacuated the day before, it is no longer really able to influence the events.
Now without a unified command, these three pockets fought in isolation. And it is on their scale that we will now follow the confrontations in the ruins of the capital.
...
Żoliborz (Warsaw district) - The "Northern" group is in agony: cut off from the Kampinos forest, it awaits the final assault... which does not come! In fact, the extreme resistance opposed these last days to the attacks has somewhat disgusted the Germans... and, for von dem Bach-Zelewski, the road to the east remains a priority. Thus, against all odds, this group of the Armia Krajowa does not disintegrate. It even continues to circulate through the sewers - which allows to evacuate 800 fighters and 4,500 civilians from the Old City to the area still controlled by the insurgency. But for the soldiers left behind, the 2,500 wounded aand 35,000 civilians, there was no quarter given: like in Wola or Ochota, the Axis massacre without mercy all those it considers to be combatants and deport the others - not without having committed murders, rapes and other violence beforehand.
...
Kampinos Forest (Warsaw district) - After the fall of the Old City and the collapse of the Polish center, the "Kampinos Republic" receives from Colonel Antoni Chruściel "Monter" the order to make a new attempt from the next night to the Gdańsk station - but this time in an attempt to clear the Żoliborz sector. Col. Kazimierz Iranek-Osmecki "Heller", not really convinced that the means at his disposal (they have decreased since March 14th!), is nevertheless prepared to obey - but does he have the choice?
...
Neighborhood of Śródmieście (district of Warsaw) - Flat calm or almost in this sector - after the butchery and harsh disappointment of the previous day, the Germans are quiet, while the Poles do a poor job of concealing a sharp drop in morale, which hinders any initiative towards the Old Town or the few positions still held in Mokotów. It would take a lot to restore hope.
Alas, the visit they received this evening was not going to motivate them! Indeed, under the cover of night, several reconnaissance elements of the 1st Polish Army crossed the Vistula towards Śródmieście, in order to make contact with the Armia Krajowa without really announcing himself. After many adventures to reach their destination, they received a rather lukewarm welcome. It is true that after the events of the previous day - not to mention those of the last few weeks! - the Poles are not really in the mood to celebrate, and the presence of soldiers in Soviet uniform, even if they are fellow countrymen, is not a pleasant surprise for the Resistance fighters. A month earlier, in his report to London, Stefan Rowecki wrote about Berling's men: "We do not expect anything good from this side, nor do we delude ourselves about their possible loyalty to cooperate with independent Polish agents."
The current passes all the more badly that, in spite of his most justified military prejudices, Sygmund Berling was forced by the NKVD to send his most "politically secure" elements (at least according to the organization in question). In this case, it was (Związek Patriotów Polskich - Union of Polish Patriots), that many Warsawites would surely call traitors without hesitation! And the presence of many "returned" AK members in Berling's forces does not soothe the wounds, quite the contrary! In fact, all of them now know that if they get away with it, it will be deportation or conscription.
We will have to deal with it, for better or for worse. Not having any clear information about what the Red Army is planning for tomorrow, the Poles are waiting to see.
Our (new and friendly) best friend
VVS of the 2nd Belorussian Front - Taking advantage of the return of a "flyable" weather over Poland, and on the express instruction of the Kremlin (which does not forget to manage the contingencies), the strategic aviation starts to send from the west of Belarus large capacity aircraft (Pe-8, TB-7, Il-4) to drop containers of weapons over the Polish capital. The operation was not really organized in the last few days - one could even say that it was improvised! In fact, the VVS have neither the time, nor the know-how of the capitalist air forces for this type of mission.
The planes leave one by one, in the disorder, to drop their loads at dawn or even in the morning (thus risking to be shot at by the Flak, or by a marauding fighter!). The containers, not all of them equipped with a parachute, crash at random all over the city. In fact, a good part of the mortars, anti-tank guns, automatic weapons, ammunition and medicine they were carrying did not fall into the hands of the insurgents... What does it matter, since the cameras from all over the world were on the ground filming the take-off of the planes going to rescue the poor Poles?
The sky is no longer empty... but what's the point?
Panatella Air Base - Tonight, for the first time in a long time, the Halifaxes of the 1586th Special Duty Flight (Polish) can fly back to their capital. It has been ten days and nights since the airmen had been able to help their fellow countrymen. Of course, they are now accompanied by fifteen South African aircraft from Sqn 31 (SA) and 34 (SA) - but the Poles cannot help but feel that this is far too little, and above all far too late.
At night, the four-engined aircraft with the red and white checkerboard and those with the red and blue roundels fly over Warsaw, as if hemmed in by a narrow band that runs between gray clouds and an apocalyptic landscape covered with ashes. In less than two weeks, everything has changed even more than in the previous four and a half years! The pilots have little guidance as to where to drop their packages, due to the lack of a reliable link with the insurgency. They are reduced to circling around in search of a place that seems a little more calm, near the Vistula River, without too many flames or traces of fighting in progress.
Circling around the already dead city, one of the pilots spots a German column - probably SS - coming down the ulica Drogą Dworską, which runs through the Wola district.
For a brief moment, a sinister thought crossed his mind: what if he threw his aircraft with its tons of metal and cubic meters of gasoline on the group of assassins?
That would be much more effective and productive than dropping a few packages! The plane flies over the street rumbling - the pilot strokes the stick, looks for the bomb bay control as if he had projectiles at his disposal. Behind him, he hears a crash: the tail gunner has lost his nerve and empties his magazines towards the ground while shouting into the intercom. Some tracers... it's as if they've been spotted. Too bad. The pilot will drop his containers elsewhere, almost at random - too little, too late. Then, the Halifax climbs back up, its black wings away from the blaze... Below, the bomber observes the silhouette of a lone twin-engine aircraft flying very low and silhouetted against the flames. A C-47? Or maybe an Il-4?
..........
"Among the numerous and globally ineffective attempts at aerial refueling to support the insurrection, there is a grey area that the study of the archives has not allowed to completely clear up: the eventual parachuting of secret agents directly onto the Polish capital.
It is certain that the Allied command always refused to do so, for obvious reasons of security as well as efficiency: why risk an airlift and trained (and therefore precious) personnel on a mission that was as risky as it was hopeless? It takes a gust of wind for the agent to fall on the wrong side of the front! As for the sending of the Polish parachute brigade directly to Warsaw, this chimera would certainly have been spectacular but also both bloody and useless - it would not have served the cause of the Secret Army at all, whatever one may think, with the benefit of hindsight, of the actions of the Sosabowski brigade.
In fact, it is a fact that no personnel were dropped on Warsaw... With one exception, however: according to persistent rumors, a lone Dakota was indeed sent over the city during the night of March 15th-16th, 1944, on direct orders from the War Office, with several people on board to be dropped. What was the purpose of this mission - if it took place at all? It is impossible to say. Undoubtedly, the presence documented that same night of a high-ranking SS officer in Pałac Błękitny for a short inspection tour can still make many fans of sensationalism... But the rest of their stories - the presence on the scene of a hypothetical very young British agent and a paunchy SS major accompanied by a strange captain as his driver, the outbreak of a violent gunfight at the Błękitny Palace between these characters, or even the parachuting of a coffin (!) on the city are obviously
poppycock."
(Robert Stan Pratsky, Bitter Liberation: the Second Polish Campaign - Granit, 2008).
Settlement of scores between Nazis
Radom - After the unpleasant events of the previous day, SS-Brigadeführer Bronislav Kaminski finally arrives at his staff conference, with the arrogance and unawareness of those who believe themselves to be indispensable. He is received by the second knives of the General Government - Ernst Kundt, the governor of Distrikt Radom - the Belarussian quickly realizes that the meeting turns into a trial. His trial. He is accused in particular of the complete indiscipline of his troop as well as its disorderly plundering. The man defends himself strongly by pointing out the bad behavior of the other units of the Schutzstaffel (whose behavior was certainly far from correct but they are not the ones to be judged!) Stubbornly refusing to understand the deep nature of German grievances, Kaminski finally sinks into a sort of nervous breakdown, declaring that he had been promised "a free hand in Warsaw", recalling his years of fighting for the Reich, "for which [he and his men] lost everything", before concluding that they had "the right to repay themselves on the backs of Polish traitors and rebels!" With that, he turns on his heels and goes back to his unit!
But as he tries to leave the room, he is stopped by the guns of two Landsers pointed at his chest! Herr Brigadeführer-SS Kaminski then returns to his seat, a little more polite than before and, it seems, trembling slightly. Witnesses of the scene will say that he had been put in his place! Of course, Kaminski had no real rival in his position as a Russian collaborator of the Nazis, for lack of (for example) a general turned by the Heer... But who can claim to be completely indispensable in these times?
The discussion continues. Faced with him, the Germans look more and more like the judges of a court-martial, for it is now a question of the rape of two German women of the Kraft durch Freude by his men, at the beginning of March...
Treblinka
Village of Wólka Okrąglik - In the forest south of the Bug, on the route that the Soviet forces take while descending to the Wieprz, there is an abandoned clearing. This clearing is Treblinka: a Nazi death camp, destroyed on the direct orders of GrüppenFührer-SS Odilo Globocnik - a Slovenian from a poor family, who was successively responsible for the BurgGraben project (the forced labor of Jews at the German-Soviet border), the deportation of Jews to the camps and the liquidation of almost all the ghettos in Poland (Operation Reinhard). He was also responsible for the implementation of the gas chambers.
Treblinka was a bit like... his child: the first installation designed specifically for large-scale murder, thanks to an industrial "process" (as we would say today) - a process which involved unloading the trains after a journey in atrocious conditions**, sorting, stripping, asphyxiation (or execution in the lazaretto in case of rebellion) and finally cremation.
This... test site was rather poorly organized - it was common for victims to line up in front of the gas chamber and enter the line up in front of the gas chamber and hear the screams and moans of the unfortunate ones before them. This of course triggered panic, screams and attempts to escape... Moreover, Treblinka had no crematorium - the bodies were burned in huge pits on grates, like others cook sausages.
However, in 1944, Treblinka was already referred to in the past tense. The camp was closed, killed by its "father", following a completely failed prisoner revolt, but not without first setting fire to a large part of the facilities and causing the guards to panic.
Among the rebels, only 70 survivors were able to escape. But the episode was enough to demonstrate the fragility of this mechanism of death. The order was given to dismantle this "imperfect facility" as quickly as possible and to send the prisoners back to Auschwitz. Since then, Globocnik has since returned to Slovenia to attend to other matters.
So there was nothing left of the camp when the Red Army arrived at the site. Nothing, that is, as usual, a farm run by a Ukrainian Hiwi, Oswald Strebel - who was ordered to say that he had been there forever. This lie was obviously not enough!
The fact that the Germans, when leaving, also razed to the ground entire villages - Poniatowo, Prostyń and Grądy - is enough to indicate to less sagacious minds that there is here something to hide. Under the recently planted lupines, bones, paper, shards of dishes, razors, shreds of shoes and strands of hair. The remains of a kind of disappeared city. The road leading to the farm is black with ashes, turned over by opportunists who were looking here for scraps of gold teeth. It is estimated that 870,000 people died in Treblinka in less than two years - making it one of the deadliest azi camps, for a relatively short period of time.
With the discovery, the month before, of the horrors of Lublin, Treblinka could have gone unnoticed and more or less forgotten, like Belzec***. But this will not be the case, thanks to Vasily Grossmann, who arrived on the site on March 16th. Under the influence of a horrified inspiration, the journalist-writer will write a long text as unbearable as powerful, published in Zanamya under the title Hell of Treblinka. The result of a long investigation, the work will be produced at Nuremberg for its clinical description of Nazi horror. We will quote only one sentence here, the conclusion, where the writer expresses his terrible weariness in walking the black road: "And it seems that the heart is going to stop, embraced by a sorrow, a pain, that a man could not bear". Nervously exhausted, Grossmann will then have difficulty to return to the front - shortly afterwards he returned to Moscow to remain bedridden for two months, unable to receive anyone.
Nothing to lose
Auschwitz camp - Arrival of a convoy of nearly 20,000 French women rounded up from all over still occupied France. Resistance fighters, widows of resistance fighters, committed citizens, communists, intellectuals, some Jewish women who had escaped from previous deportations... what does it matter, when all of Humanity is your enemy? The deported women cannot ignore the traces of the previous day's revolt and massacre. Bravado or certainty, most of the "able-bodied" then spontaneously gather in the courtyard to sing the Marseillaise. Surprisingly, contrary to their habit, the SS do not open fire. Perhaps because they had run out of arms...
But at the end of the war, these 20,000 women were only 97 survivors. Evacuated before the advance of the Red Army, they will be handed over - unbelievable cynicism - to the Red Cross by the Nazis themselves, in a desperate and pitiful effort to please the future victors.
* A joke was running around the brigade's Scottish training ground: a Pole and his British instructor jumped out of an aircraft, the instructor following his student to keep an eye on him, saying, "I'm staying behind." The Pole opens his parachute, which obviously slows him down - but the Briton's does not open. Seeing his instructor dare to pass him in a frantic attempt to open the chute, the student tries to get out of his harness and shouts: "So we're racing without warning?"
** Some of the first convoys were to suffer 90% casualties before they even arrived at Treblinka!
*** In fact, the site was not protected or even marked until 1958. Before that date, only a memorial gathering the human remains was built by local students under the direction of Professor Feliks Szturo and the priest Józef Ruciński. Today a granite monument carved by Franciszek Duszeńko marks the spot. And Strebel's farm is still visitable.
Because you didn't know that, did you? (Silence.)